New Online Dating Stats and Other Fascinating News on the Web

Changing Dating Demographics

According to the latest numbers from Pew, “5% of Americans who are currently married or in a long-term partnership met their partner somewhere online. Among those who have been together for ten years or less, 11% met online.” As you’d expect, more than half of online daters say that “someone else seriously misrepresented themselves in their profile.” And Americans aren’t just using the Internet to start new relationships. They are also using it to end them. “One in six Americans with recent dating experience have broken up with someone — or had someone break up with them — by text message, email, or sending a message online.” Here’s a look at the latest digital dating stats.

Glitchy Health Care Website

Now that the government shutdown is over, President Obama has transitioned to his new role: Tech support. The health care website has had its share of problems since its debut. It’s worth noting there aren’t that many engineers on the planet who can build a site that can scale to handle a massive onslaught of traffic on day one.

Tainted Breast Milk

Has society become too extreme when it comes to pressuring new mothers to supply their babies with breast milk? Many women who can’t breastfeed have turned to the Internet to purchase breast milk, and according to a new study, that milk is often contaminated. For what it’s worth, I was a formula baby and I’ve got more than a hundred browser tabs open right now.

First-Borns Are Better Students

First born children tend to do better in school. And according to a recent study, parenting is the reason. Here’s The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson on one mysterious finding and seven theories to explain it. (I’m hoping my older sister will explain this article to me at some point.)

More Pay It Forward

You pull up to the fast-food drive-through window and pull out your wallet. But the cashier tells you to put your money away because the person in the car in front of you already paid for your meal. For some reason, that’s been happening to more and more people. “Whereas paying it forward in drive-throughs occurred maybe once or twice a year a decade ago, now fast-food operators said it might happen several times a day.” Last December, 228 consecutive cars paid it forward at a fast food joint in Winnipeg. According to one woman who pays it forward at least once a week: “It’s about giving, and letting people see not everybody is bad, and there are nice people out there and maybe we can turn it around.” Pretty cool. But these folks ought to pay forward some fruits and vegetables once in a while.

Thug Life

“I still feel like a coward to this day because of that bullying. That’s a wild feeling, being that helpless. You never ever forget that feeling. That was the last day I went to school. I was 7 years old, and I just never went back to class.” Mike Tyson on Mike Tyson: My Life as a Young Thug.

Destroying the Evidence

“Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, Monet, Meijer de Haan and Freud. On television they are talking about a loot worth hundreds of millions of euros. The amount is not important to her. The pictures are evidence against her son and destroying the evidence seems like the only way she can help him.” Stealing masterpieces is hard. Selling them can be even harder. Here’s the story of the tragic fate of the masterpieces stolen from Rotterdam.

Banana George’s Obit

“He skied on a hydrafoil at 48 and flew solo at 53. At 68, he rode a camel, at 75 he snowboarded. He drove a race car at 81. At 83, he sky dived and surfed. At 85, he rode a bull.” A water skiing legend known as Banana George Blair has died at the age of 98. His obituary will inspire you.

The Bottom of the News

About 20 million bottles are sold a year. Menus and even entire cookbooks have been dedicated to it. And the company doesn’t spend any money on advertising. From Quartz, here’s a look at “the highly unusual company behind Sriracha, the world’s coolest hot sauce.”